A Memorial to the Never Forgotten
by Worldeater
Summary: everything you need to know is in the note section I wrote before the story begins. Also, for some reason, my paragraph indentations never carried over into the final draft even though I edited them so they did so if it bothers anyone, you now know why.


_authors note- this may be a weird story for most readers, even to me it seems a little strange. all at once you are introduced to a character you have never met or heard of before, and into this situation you have no background knowledge of. This is a character of my own creation, whose origin will be discussed later one (this section is that- a section of a much larger story, that I have in my head. It is out of place right now, as it takes place quite awhile down the road, but I tend to write what section comes into my head at the time, so for the purposes of everything, this is a seperate story, and upon completion of the entire thing, will be integrated as a section). I am posting this separate, more or less as a means to get used to how posting stories on this website work, and how to get it into the proper section (which is avatar FYI). Hope you enjoy my slightly out of place time skip, which takes place 6 years or so after the season finale of Avatar the last airbender. Keep in mine, i am a very busy person, so updates may be a little slow, but i promise to keep posting for the people who may actually enjoy this fiction. Oh, and the chris character is about 23 years old in this. Just so you know._

**Memorial to the never forgotten**

"Guys, I'm gonna step away for a moment, I've got some..things to take care of" Chris stated as he rose from his kneeling position, hefting his traveling bag over his shoulder. As he began to walk away into the forest, Toph rose up. He knew she was going too ask. He knew she wanted to go with him, and he wanted her to come. He wanted her to see it.

"Wait up, I'm coming with you." She ran over to where he was, and he began twisting around to regard her. She was standing next to him by the time he craned his head around, and he was taken back by how she looked under the full moons light. Sokka had told him stories about an important person to him, some girl by the name of Yue, had become the moon spirit when the original was killed years ago in the northern water tribes capital. He scoffed at the idea...at the time. Two fish forever swimming around each other, both of them spirits made manifest in the physical world, a young girl who gave up her life to become the new spirit and restore the moon to its' place in the sky. It had all seemed so silly to him at the time...so...foreign and alien. This Yue was obviously important to him he had rationalized, her death must have been traumatic for him, so he thought up the spirit bit as a way for her to be physically there with him every night. As time went on, he began to believe what sokka had told him as truth. Especially now. He himself now believed that the moon was more then just a rock floating around in space...it seemed so..different from the moon he was used too. It seemed to give off a more flattering light, and always shined brightly and lit up the night landscape.

_Perhaps this Yue moon spirit thingy is trying to show me something _he thought in his mind. Toph looked Hauntingly beautiful underneath the moonlight, her hazy, clouded eyes seemed to absorb the light itself and reflect it back at him. _Maybe it was... _He brushed the thought off immediately. She was like a sister to him nothing more. But still...

"Hey, Chris, Hey" she said aloud, trying to dislodge him from his thoughts. His vacant, distant posture signaled to her that his mind had wandered off again. She pulled on his sleeve in a failed attempt too get to him. A smirk crossed her face as she raised her hand, palm down, into the air, causing a spike of rock to burst from the ground, and connect squarely with his lower back, sending him reeling.

"I hate it when you zone out like that Moony" she was stifling a laugh as she heard him groaning on the hard earth in pain. She loved doing that to him. _Never gets old_ she thought.

His vision was covered by small dancing shapes of all colors, some of which he couldn't identify. His vision was slightly blurred as he rolled over onto his stomach and shakily hefted himself onto his feet.

"Never get sick of that do ya Toph?" she was still laughing. _Great_, he thought, I_'ll probably have to deal with this while we walk to the clearing_. He bent down to pick up his bag, bracing his lower spine with his hand as he did so.

"Didn't mean to hurt you...or maybe I did, I'm not sure yet."

"Perfect, your not sure if your intention was to hurt me, or if you were just doing it for a nice giggle. Your a psychopath you know that?" She burst out laughing. She always loved his sense of humor. They started on the path he had been using for the past few days, the entrance to which wasn't far off. The forest wasn't very thick or populated, as most of the local fauna and animal life was destroyed or displaced during the war many years back. The land still hadn't recovered. They walked in silence for a little while, Chris was using landmarks he had previously set up to aid him in finding the spot he desired. Toph could feel the land between her feet, the soil creeping between her toes with every step. It was a cold soil. With every step she could pick up the layout of the area. The trees stood as silent, dead reminders of the atrocities committed by the fire nation all those years ago. It was unsettling to be in such a large space, that was, for the most part, completely devoid of life.

"I take it we're heading toward that clearing up ahead?"

"your tremor sense still amazes me you know that. Yea, we're going there. It's an important place to me." She mulled over the last few words in her mind. _How can it be important to him, we've only been at this campsite for a few days now._

The tree-line abruptly stopped, and they stepped into a large circular clearing which was bathed in moonlight. _Here it is..._ He always felt nervous when he came into these areas, something about this place especially put him on edge. It was a complete contrast to the dead woods they had trekked through. Where, in the forest, there were only dried up, dead grass and trees, this place somehow managed to escape the destruction. It looked just like a miniature hillside plain, the grass was short and green, and a large tree jutted out in the middle of the area.

"I- I don't understand...how can this be here?" The words came out as a stutter from her mouth.

"It's amazing isn't it..even if you cannot see it, you can feel the life in here. It's hard to explain, but for some reason, I feel drawn to it. For some reason I feel...at peace" He stared at the tree, and shook his head abruptly, clearing his thoughts. He began to walk toward the center of the clearing, with Toph in pursuit. They Arrived at the tree and sat down on the grass, as he did so, he felt the cool lick of the wind lash against his face. _Strange, never felt any wind coming through the forest...never do, but why? It must be the tree cover, yea, thats it. _He knew it couldn't be the case. Those branch less dead trees couldn't stem the wind, but, it was the best idea he could form. He opened his bag and began to take out several items. He removed a small, crudely cut wood carving, roughly in the shape of a stalactite. Next, he removed a picture of a attractive young women from his pocket and placed it onto the base of the carving, along with two rings. He sat there silently as he looked at the crude carving and the picture.

"Chris, what are you doing?" Toph asked in a hushed voice. She felt him root around in his bag and 'saw' the thing he removed from his bag. He sat there silently, not hearing what she had said. He was lost in his thoughts again. She knew it was important to him, but still, she wanted to know. She placed her hand on his shoulder and his head shot toward her abruptly. _Those eyes...she's staring right at me..._

"Sorry..i-it's a memorial...to my friends and family...my wife and child...Michelle and Steven..." he fought back the tears that welled up in his eyes. _Michelle and Steven...my wife and unborn child..._

She could feel the sorrow waft over him, felt his heart skip a beat and flutter as he mentioned his wife.

"You use this place to set up a small memorial for her..and everyone you've lost. I wish I could help you..I really do. If you want me to leave I will, I understand." The concern and sincerity in her voice was apparent. He tore his gaze away from the picture on the wooden sculpture and the two rings- their wedding bands- and regarded Toph once more.

"No...I want you to stay. I try to deal with this by myself, and it usually works, but sometimes...sometimes...it's nice to have someone with you while you suffer. They don't have to do or say anything at all to help, just being there shows that they care you know?" They sat in silence again, she removed her hand from his shoulder, and wrapped both her arms around his waist in a tight hug.

"Even if all I can do is this, I want to help." He began to cry as the memories came flooding back to him. The day she died, how he couldn't save her. How, she was pregnant with his child...Their child. He didn't care if anyone saw him cry anymore, he had lost too much and had held it in him for the past 3 years with tears hardly shed. He let it all hang out in the open, only to her. _I wish I could do more to help him...I wish I could say sorry it'll be alright, you couldn't save her, it wasn't your fault. There there, you'll be fine. _The thought agonized her. He was like a big brother to her, she connected with him better then anyone else did. She saved his life countless times, helped him get through any physical hardship he faced as best she could. Not now..she felt completely powerless. Useless.

"Chris, tell me about the carving you made, maybe it will help to talk about that, it could change your focus from your grief to something else." He looked at her again, his heart beating in his head, tears running down his face, tracing jagged paths in the dirt.

"Allright." He composed himself slightly and began.

"The thing I made...the thing I use as a tribute, is full of imperfections, Jagged edges, poorly cut out whittled, blemished and stained. I did it all on purpose. The shape is flawed because us, humans, are inherently flawed creatures. You, me, Katara, Aang, even Michelle were and are ripe with character flaws which affect the way we act. To me, those aren't bad things at all- we should celebrate our flaws, as they ground us, and keep our heads from getting too high in the clouds. When we lose someone, we tend to only think of the good times we had with them. I focus on all the time I had with Michelle, the good and the bad. It's funny, I find I miss our little arguments, our fights...looking back on it, I realize they were part of both of our characters. I want to remember those times, as they help me remember her more humanly- not perfect, but I still loved her with every cell in my body. These knicks and gashes;" he grabs her hand and rubs it lightly over the plethora of gashes in the carving "represent each and everyone of my friends and family that I lost. I can name each one for each person...It's a simple thing really, made during a time when I wasn't sure if I was going to stay alive. It speaks monuments to me, and is my most treasured possession."

He finishes by letting go of her hand and looks down at the picture again.

"Our rings...I still have them. They are the second most important thing to me now, the picture of her is the third. These three items are all I have left of my old life, and her." She sits there with him. Neither say much to each other after that, but they both can feel the bond between them strengthen.

"I'm glad I came with you tonight Chris."

"So am I Toph."

With that he packs up his belongings, and they start to leave. Before they make it into the forest again, he looks up into the night sky. The stars shine brightly in the, behind the backdrop of the glowing moon which brought these two together, into this clearing tonight to share a moment with each other. He stares into the face of the moon and feels his spirit raise. For the first time in a long while, he feels like life is worth living

_I love you Michelle_.

With that, they set off back toward camp. He looks at her again, and smiles.

_She really is beautiful._


End file.
